I know, I know, you’re probably wondering, ‘how do you get dreidel & menorah shapes into your chicken soup?’. Once you learn the secret and how easy it is you’ll be wondering why you didn’t think of it all by yourself. I have to confess, I didn’t think of this ingenious idea myself either. I read it on the blog, DailyCheapskate, and asked her permission to share this creative idea with you all here.

Draidel Shaped Noodles

Directions:

Take a box of lasagna noodles and cook in boiling water as per the directions on the box.

Once the noodles have cooled off, cut out the shapes with the cookie cutter and set the shapes aside. You will place them into the bowls of chicken soup before you serve it. Your Shabbat Hanukkah guests will be pleasantly surprised. I know my kids are going to go crazy with excitement when they see these in their Friday night chicken soup – which is by far their favorite part of the meal, aside from my challah & tomato dip.

Since I’m on the topic of Friday night chicken soup, I figured I should share my personal chicken soup recipe with you here. I played around with different variations of classic chicken soup ingredients until I came up with this final version to get a natural clear golden color, full of flavor, without any soup mix additives. Using the bones and necks also happens to be a few dollars cheaper then using a whole or cut-up chicken, and while I love to save money, that’s not why I use them. I use chicken bones and turkey necks because I find the bones give the soup a special flavor different from a whole chicken. When I can’t find turkey necks I use chicken necks and it only makes the soup richer in taste. The turkey necks add some iron which is also why I like to use them. I only use the loose, thick carrots instead of the regular packaged thin ones as well – this also adds to the sweetness in flavor and golden color.

This recipe makes a huge pot of chicken soup. But you can freeze half of it and this way you only have to make the soup every 2 weeks! This recipe easily serves 20. I also make the soup on Thursday and place what I need for that Shabbos in the refrigerator overnight, reheating it an hour before Shabbos on Friday. My mother taught me that chicken soup always tastes better when its refrigerated overnight. Refrigerating it also allows you to scrape the extra fat off of the top before you re-heat it making the soup more heart-healthy.

Friday Night Chicken Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

1 package of chicken bones (1 to 1 1/2 lbs)

1 package of turkey or chicken necks (3-4 turkey necks)

5 – 6 thick loose carrots peeled and sliced into thick chunks

1 – 2 large onions

1 celery root, peeled

3-4 pieces of celery

1 turnip, peeled

1 parsnip, peeled

1 sweet potato, peeled

1 – 2 garlic cloves (optional – I add this in the winter time to help ward off colds)

Add the rest of the ingredients and let soup simmer, with the top of the pot slightly askew so steam can escape, for another 2 hours.

Let soup stand and cool off. Add more salt & pepper to taste.

Remove all the bones and vegetables from the soup. When the soup has cooled off, pour it through a strainer – the broth from this usually fits into a smaller 11 quart pot and 5 – 6 quart storage container ( or 2, 2 1/2 quart containers). I place the pot in the fridge overnight to reheat on Friday and freeze the rest.